e-GOVERNMENT IN FINLAND - ePractice.eu

Key Points - 3
x Public administration reform has provided an overall vision and objectives for improving
public service quality and efficiency and for developing e-government goals and
responsibilities in Finland.
30. Public reforms in the 1990s have largely been along new public management (NPM) principles,
focusing mainly on decentralisation and enhancing public governance, in particular increasing citizen input
and choice. These reforms aimed at restraining rises in public spending, improving performance and
productivity by introducing market-type mechanisms and improving the public sector’s overall
accountability. 4 NPM reforms in the 1990s took place in three major areas:
x Decentralisation: municipalities and agency autonomy was increased significantly.
x Privatisation and the creation of public enterprises: 90 000 civil servants were removed
from under the state’s detailed control and budget and many were moved into newly created
public enterprises.
x Tight budgetary discipline: budget cuts in combination with maintaining output have
increased productivity.
31. Owing to NPM reforms, there is less ministerial control of agencies, and ministries’ detailed
input-oriented instructions have been eliminated. Finnish ministries today seem to take a passive approach
to their co-ordination responsibilities of the agencies under them. According to interviews with
government officials, the MoF has developed a tendency to bypass ministries and work directly with
agencies on providing e-government guidance. The relative weakness of ministries, however, is as much
the result of their own perception of their role as the reduction in their resources and tools.
32. Interviews with ICT officials in ministries indicate that most feel that they should have a “light
touch” in terms of co-ordinating e-government activities in agencies in their ministerial portfolio. The
OECD report Budgeting in Finland, however, demonstrates that, relative to other Nordic countries, Finnish
ministries possess a greater share of staff resources. In Finland, about 5% of all government employees are
employed in core ministries, compared with less than 1% in Sweden. 5
33. Following NPM reforms, not only do agencies have more freedom to set their own priorities, but
the set of tools and incentives available to e-government co-ordinators such as the MoF for urging agencies
to work together has decreased as well. As part of NPM reforms the MoF gave up much of its power to
steer organisational reforms, especially in the budget and performance management areas. Instead, it
devolved a number of co-ordination activities to other government structures.
4 Alam and Kiviniemi, National Report on Finland
5
OECD (2002), Budgeting in Finland: Report to the Public Management Committee, [PUMA/SBO(2002)8/FINAL],
p. 15.
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